Closed Library Crazy Golf

The picture appears to show a typical 1970s library. Look more closely and you will see it appears to be in a bad state of repair like so many these days. Hang on, there’s boarded up windows and doors. Ah, it must be one of those closed libraries we have heard so much about. But no. Now, look more closely. Those paving slabs around it are huge and that has to be the world’s largest bicycle wheel behind it. So, what’s going on? All is revealed …

It’s a model. A very very good model. But why? Especially as the picture below shows the level of detail involved in the work:

The golf ball is part of the answer. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are seeing the World’s First Crazy Golf Model Closed Library. But why is it closed? Well, “Camborne” – a merging of Cameron and Osborne – shows who the creator thinks may be to blame nationally but there’s more to it than that. You see, this ultra-detailed closed library will be only one hole…

… one hole, that is, of the country’s “first bespoke fine art mini golf course” on show at the Nova Festival in West Sussex (5th July to 8th July).

The artist of the incredibly detailed library is Jonathan Allen who was kind enough to answer a few questions from Public Libraries News about this most impressive of model buildings ….

When designing the “hole”, was there any particular closures you had in mind?

Not really..I’m mindful of the tragedy of any library closing, since it usually represents not just a loss of potential learning, but also the loss of another convivial public space in which, as we know, all sorts of cultural activity can flourish and be imagined. One space which I have been watching near to where I live is the Dorset Library (London E2 7QX), currently closed for ‘health and safely reasons’ . I don’t know the full story of this space but its location at the foot of, and part of a huge council block is significant and interesting. It’s also circular which is nice.

“not just a loss of potential learning, but also the loss of another convivial public space in which, as we know, all sorts of cultural activity can flourish and be imagined.”

My whole life I have used public libraries, and indeed any library i can find. Now that I’m based in London, the British Library is my main port of call for all manner of research, and its has served me not only for the expertise and collections contained therein, but as a space where I can just be with people, in the simpler but no less important communal sense. As we all know, there is an incredible sense of belonging in libraries, even for those who haven’t actually come to seek out specific knowledge. My particular love is the rare books and music reading room at the BL where can be found many readers gazing at musical manuscripts. I don’t know why this should be so but its somehow easier for me to imagine music in the mind of a reader than words… there is lots of music floating around the silence of that room for me.

“… there is an incredible sense of belonging in libraries, even for those who haven’t actually come to seek out specific knowledge …”

In terms of practical impact on my own work, the BL and other libraries simply grant me access, in a highly conducive environment, to information that is often impossible to access elsewhere at the particular time when it is required. Timing is often of crucial importance for projects, as any researcher will tell you.

More generally…I used to work with unwell ex-steel workers in Sheffield in the 1990s and one of them (Lockwood Green) said to me once..’With a library ticket, you can travel from the North Pole to the South Pole’. I think that sums it up nicely.

Was the model of a particular library?

I’m hesitant to tell you this, since I don’t want to tempt fate! But yes, the visual design was loosely based on the most westerly (‘left’) public library in Britain, at St.Just. If the current administration manage to put pressure on St.Just, then all hope is lost! But it should be emphasized that this was just a design template, as well as a library that I had just happened to pass nearby on a New Year’s break a few years ago, and caught in a holiday snap. St.Just library seems in good health, as far as I know, and I’m unsure of the political situation down there, or the policy regarding its future.

“This is also the kind of library I used as a child, and where I learned to love words and the way they are captured together in meaningful groups in books …”

I was really looking for a generic 1970s building that everyone would recognise as civic library architecture. This is also the kind of library I used as a child, and where I learned to love words and the way they are captured together in meaningful groups in books.

Well you only have to speak to library staff and readers to know that this is a fantasy. What gets me is the amount of ‘creativity’ that is actually required to be so negligent. Destructiveness is usually the word used in this kind of context…’current policy is destroying long-worked for institutions etc etc’, but it must not be forgotten that it takes considerable creative effort to sit down and plan to de-assemble structures that have existing potential for growth, and existing cultural vitality. I suspect that bleeding libraries of their lifeblood is ideological at heart since informed citizens congregate to form an active and potentially hegemony-challenging citizenry.

” … What gets me is the amount of ‘creativity’ that is actually required to be so negligent … “

As for the Arts Council taking up the reins of libraries…we’ll have to wait and see. But not recognising the independent knowledge-base of librarians and their institutions, and firming up a Library Council, seems misguided. As for artist’s working with libraries..well, I’d encourage money going to artists any day, but not at the cost of the wider basic funding support of public library’s per se. Yes, technology is changing things a lot (Sven Birkets, The Gutenberg Elegies is good on the difference between book and screen), but libraries and the knowledge of librarians form a very specific cultural quality that should be cherished, valued and built upon. Otherwise, its Fahrenheit 451 ahead!

“… libraries and the knowledge of librarians form a very specific cultural quality that should be cherished, valued and built upon. Otherwise, its Fahrenheit 451 ahead.”

The model library will be part of a playable Crazy Golf course at the Nova Festival, Bignor Park, Pulborough in West Sussex from 5th to 8th July 2012.

This entry was posted by Ian Anstice on June 29, 2012 at 8:48 pm, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

What a great idea. Anything that draws attention to the plight of libraries is fantastic. It’s not just the building that makes a library it also the atmosphere inside and sadly that is deteriorating in lots of libraries. To be great libraries need to be well staffed, have a good range of books and activities and events to make people want to go there! @Teens4Libraries http://www.teens4libraries.wordpress.com

There are currently 3850 libraries in the UK (CIPFA figures for 2015/16). There were 4023 in 2013/14, 4482 in 2009/10 and 4622 in 2003/4.
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The complete list is on "Tally by Local Authority" page as are other changes to budgets such as cuts to hours, bookfund and staffing. CIpfa have calculated that 121 service points lost in 2015/16, 106 service points were lost in 2014/15, 49 were lost in 2013/14, 74 were lost in 2012/13, 201 in 2011/12, 33 in 2010/11.
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For a list of new and refurbished buildings see this page,

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